Namdia profit plunges 41%

Namibian state-owned Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) says its profit after-tax eased 41% to N$95.2 million in the financial year ended 31 March 2020 compared with N$161.9 million, a year earlier.
The profit before tax was N$150.1 million.
Namdia paid N$62.9 million in taxes to the Ministry of Finance and declared a dividend of $80 million to the Namibian government.  Company chief executive Kennedy Hamutenya said in a statement accompanying the company’s 2019 financial results that NAMDIA conducted 10 sales totalling 253,073.37 carats for an average price of $528.64 per carat.
“In the last quarter of the financial year, in mid-January 2020, the diamond industry was profoundly, adversely impacted by the outbreak of COVID-19,” said Hamutenya. “The diamond centres worldwide closed and diamond trading declined sharply in February due to economic uncertainty surrounding the corona virus.”

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished